Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Putnam]

How do we suck so bad. Rabbits though.

page of heart.
Wait. I don't know much about this mod. Did you change hell into the medium, or is there no potential for a Sgrub session to start starring your adventurer?

Uh wow not quite that much. There's at least one new nasty in hell, but it most certainly isn't the medium or anything.

[flabort]

So, then, I don't know, are there classpects in the mod?
I guess you could say you're the 'ansestors', which is why classpects work (if they do), but why you won't be starting a session.

Hmm. I hope eventually Toady adds 'pocket' or 'sideways' dimensions, and makes them moddable, so that you can add the Medium (and dream bubbles) to your mod when he does.

[Putnam]

Only the twelve aspects. Used to be 144 claspects. That was hard.

Claspects aren't really known to be a thing on The Ageless Planet, though.

Pocket dimensions are going to be great.

[Putnam]

How do we suck so bad. Rabbits though.

Rest up for an hour or two, then ask around nearby non-bandited towns for information of things to kill that aren't so deadly, wild animals or something.

Search for fresh water

You head for the nearest town and fill your waterskin with their well.

After, you head to the tavern for some non-deadly jobs and maybe some armor (hopefully). This is a human town, so they'll probably have different troubles than your people. Great! There's a lot of armor in here. That could be useful. You decide to convert a bunch of shields and other (copper) stuff into armor grist. With this, you make a really nice helmet, mail shirt and greaves. The prospitian in the corner stares, but doesn't seem to care. You also grab a copper right gauntlet for your good hand because it makes you look badass.

You ask a nearby human maceman about troubles. He wants you to kill a titan. You write it down for later. Much later. Out of curiosity, you ask where exactly this titan's lair is. He tells you to ask the prospitian in the other room about it. He draws you a map. You ask the Prospitian about any troubles and you ask him about the beasts and you ask him where this night man wife is and he draws on your map again.

That was somewhat eventful. You also ask the Lady about people as you leave. You... very tentatively write down her advice, but decide very strongly not to go there until you can put up a fight against a teleporting creature who is better with a sword than you. Of course, there are still bandits in Mostring, and you have armor now.

Where do you go?

INVENTORY:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Some inconsequential clothes
Opossum leather waterskin (full)
Llama wool backpack
  Prepared gray langur lung [4]
  Armor grist [1]
  Weapon Grist [1]
  Stray Asparagus
  Honey Badger meat [5]
  Hemp plant fiber bag
    Asparagus [28]
Unbreakable Katana
Eternal Shame

SKILLS:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  Butcher: 0
  Alchemist: 0
  Bladekind: 5
  Armor: 0
  Throwing: 0
  Sneaking: 0
  Swimming: 2
  Tracking: 2
  Observer: 4
  Reading: 1
  Fighting: 0
  Archery: 0
  Fistkind: 3
  Dodging: 0.5
  Experience points: 17

PARTY:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  Glafli Unnask, Stress-filled and thoughtful.
  Excitement seekers:
   Herido Ebbeir, Curious and singleminded.
   Harlin Sjalda, Hopeful and polite.

JOURNAL CONTENTS:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You've heard rumors that The Abysses of Wilt, a group of bandits, is harassing Mostring, about a half-days travel to the west.
The Mint Shanks is harassing Lockskunks.
There's a troll (of the underground cyan-blooded big n' dumb sort, not the gray-skinned sort) a half-days travel to the west. False.
You've taken care of a bandit.
You've killed a night creature.
You've killed a bunny. It nearly killed you, ok???
The Sovereign Slayer is in the Shaft of Mining, far to the west.
The titan Ared the Pine of Flowers is in Skunkgrottoes, very far to the west.
The night man wife Maroli Terrorangers is fairly far to the southwest.

APPEARANCE:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Very sparse, dry black hair in double braids; narrow ears with large lobes; short, upturned nose with convex bone bridge; broad head; thin lips; short, thin horns, at a very acute angle to the ground. Missing lower central incisors. Badass scar on left forearm. Brown blood.

[Graknorke]

Night creatures sound good to be getting our stab on on.

[cyberTripping]

Only the twelve aspects. Used to be 144 claspects. That was hard.

Pocket dimensions are going to be great.

Now I'm curious as to how you handled the more.. Abstract classpect combinations, like mages of void, or sylphs of doom, or basically all bards

I personally can't wait until boats and mounts. Because flying onto dersite ship with rocket pack.


>  Overwhelmed with a vague sense of being cool from your scar and new GAUNTLET, flaunt your recent "victories" to assorted passerby (certainly they'll fawn over your amazing feats of SLAYING A RABBIT! And a night creature as well, but that's not as amazing.)

[Putnam]

Also, a PSA: you don't really have to confine your commands to Dwarf Fortress. I can handle way more than that. Glafli's psychic powers are entirely outside the confines of adventure mode, for example.

[Putnam]

>  Overwhelmed with a vague sense of being cool from your scar and new GAUNTLET, flaunt your recent "victories" to assorted passerby (certainly they'll fawn over your amazing feats of SLAYING A RABBIT! And a night creature as well, but that's not as amazing.)

You are never speaking of the rabbit again.

You tell the Naspa (the prospitian) about the night creature, though. He doesn't seem impressed. You ask him what he thinks of you after the fact, and he gave you an expression. Screw it, emotionreading time. The emotions he's feeling tell me that he thinks you're brave. Aw. Also that you're a killer. Technically true, if not a very nice way to put it. You ask Leto, the nearby mace human. He says the same thing outright, so you're feeling pretty good about that.

Night creatures sound good to be getting our stab on on.

Then it's time to go on an adventure to warmer territory!

In a nearby town, you stop to get water. There's actual running liquid water here! It's a moving sight. You usually don't get that until summer, if at all.

You cross a river. All the blood is washed off. Wow you had a lot of blood on you. No wonder they knew you were a killer.

Now you're in evil territory. Weird purple trees everywhere. Here is where the night creature is.

There's two of them. You only expected one. You cleave one's arms off, but the other one gets to you and kicks you in the head. Your skull splatters into your brain. You die.

> Be Herido.

You cannot be Herido because Herido is enraged!

> Be Harlin

You are not enraged. You have to do something. You have to do something.

You focus all of your attention on Glafli. She has to live, this was all pointless if she doesn't, she has the best fighting skills of any of you, you'll all die if she doesn't!

She does.

>Be Glafli

You are know Glafli.

Holy shit you died. How the hell are you alive?

Harlin says not to worry about it. You kill the night man's wife. You can't stand. Harlin points at you. You can stand again. The Night Man is really wailing on Herido, who is putting up quite a fight. You cut him as much as you can until you finally get a good shot in on his neck, killing him. Fuck that guy in particular.

Now that that's over and Herido's woken up, you decide to speak to Harlin.

DIALOGLOG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

GLAFLI: What what what.
HARLIN: I wanted you to live. You lived. It was either that or we all die. Besides, I like you. You're a pleasure to speak with.
GLAFLI: Wow, thanks, I was really stressed out that I'm boring when I talk but you saying I'm a pleasure to speak with takes a load of my mind and
HERIDO: Shoosh. You're a good conversationalist and we both enjoy your company. More importantly: Harlin, that doesn't explain how.
HARLIN: Does it matter? Glafli's alive!
HERIDO: It matters! How always matters. Nobody has ever done anything like that before. This is completely unique and completely amazing.
HARLIN: It... only works every so often, I get the feeling that I can only revive people once, and
HERIDO: You (rude) healed Glafli's wounds during the fight, but not mine. Why? I do not want to end up unable to walk... no offense.
HARLIN: I can't! If I could, I would; as you'll soon learn, crawling is not a fun way to travel everywhere. If only there were some sort of device I could use to move around...
HERIDO: Don't change the subject.
HARLIN: Sorry. I already used up all of my... "life energy?" on Glafli with that revival and healing, or at least that's the explanation that best explains the odd emptiness in one area I feel right now and my inability to heal you. I can't do it again, at least... not for a while, I think. I'm not sure if I can ever do it again.
HERIDO: Hmm. I think I know what you're talking about. I felt a sort of odd rage when I saw Glafli die.
GLAFLI: Rage and life? Those don't seem related. Besides, lots of trolls feel rage.
HERIDO: Most trolls don't transfer that rage to their enemies.
GLAFLI: That sounds like latent psychic powers to me.
HERIDO: What psychic powers make others feel emotions?
GLAFLI: Mine.
HARLIN/HERIDO: What?!
GLAFLI: Earlier. Harlin. I gave you an emotion. I didn't just detect it, I felt it. I made you feel it as if it was your own.
HARLIN: You did? I remember being a bit confused about that, but I figured it was just me making myself feel better. Glafli, that's not normal. Psychic powers don't actually let you detect or change anything. Herido and I both have psychic powers. They're just mind blasts, nothing more.
GLAFLI: Then what does that make my ability to detect others' emotions?!
HERIDO/HARLIN: WHAT?!
GLAFLI: Yeah, I can read emotions and personalities. I found you two by looking for excitement-seeking individuals back at home.
HARLIN: That's not normal at all. Psychic powers only take one form, ever, between all trolls. Most people just don't talk about it because most people don't expect to get into fights, not because they're embarrassed or anything. Why did you hide yours?
GLAFLI: ...Because I was embarrassed, and thought that others would think it as a violation of privacy. Besides, I guess we've established that they're not psychic powers. If so... what are they? What kind of powers are these?
HARLIN: Something different, clearly. We shouldn't come up with hypotheses until we have a bigger sample size than 3 lowblooded troll warriors. The obvious thing to do is to ask some humans if they have any such powers, just to make sure it isn't a troll-only thing. Then we could observe if there are any animals or underlings who show signs of having unusual powers and...
HERIDO: I joined Glafli to see the world and get some excitement, not to study. Then again, I can't really say that I'm not curious. I can't even say that I'm not so curious it would pain me not to follow this through until we figure something out.
HARLIN: Well, let's figure something out then. GLAFLI: I want you to try to figure out... how smart I, you and Herido are. That's something that's not likely to be skewed by our demographics, and it could be vastly different.
GLAFLI: You're telling me to take something abstract that isn't even in what I assume my range of abilities to be and make it concrete?
HARLIN: That's not the point. The point is to determine the extent of your powers.
You try and fail to determine their intelligence.
GLAFLI: I don't think that's in the extent of my powers. I could try to determine it through emotions, though. Are you two okay with me reading your emotions and saying them out loud? It could get embarrassing.
HARLIN: You haven't been? But yes, I'm okay with that. We're all friends here.
HERIDO: Yeah, sure, what she said.

You try and fail to determine it through emotions. Herido seems insecure about this despite his agreement, but you're not going to say that outright because it seems unrelated.

GLAFLI: I can't.
HARLIN: We still don't know exactly what you can do, but we do know some of what you can't. This is a step forward anyway. Let's try something you may actually be able to do: can you tell what my hopes and dreams are?
GLAFLI: Maybe. Let me try.

Well, ain't that something.

DIALOGLOG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

GLAFLI: YES! I did it! Your dreams are to fall in love and to stay with me!
HARLIN: Haha! Wonderful!

Well, you know more about your powers now!

What will you do?

(and yeah there aren't wheelchairs in dwarf fortress)

[cyberTripping]

Rage, Life, and Heart. Oh dear

At least we don't have to worry about time or space shenanigans

Or doom player nonsense

Really this isn't as bad a combination I thought it was the more I think about it.

> You have to learn more! Who knows what secrets these powers could hold? You need to go see if anyone else beyond you lot have any peculiar powers as well.

[Graknorke]

Ooh, we're getting narrative up in here.

So, psychic powers can do things. That is a thing that we now know can be done. I'm still not sure what Herido can do exactly, if anything. I guess that's the kind of thing that'll be more obvious as things go on.

So for now..
>Loot viciously
>Take stock of any injuries
>Test powers. Try to make somebody sad or scared, see if it might be useful in trying to non-violently prevent conflict.

[Putnam]

>Loot viciously

There's nothing to loot here! Night creatures are kinda boring, despite the whole "killed you" thing.

>Take stock of any injuries

Herido still has use of his legs! In fact, he seems fine save for a massive scar on his lower body. Harlin is still having issues, but you figure she'll be fine after... that thing she did.

>Test powers. Try to make somebody sad or scared, see if it might be useful in trying to non-violently prevent conflict.

You don't feel very comfortable using your powers on non-willing people, but if you find anything with a soul (there's nothing but undead around here) you'll see what you can do.

> You have to learn more! Who knows what secrets these powers could hold? You need to go see if anyone else beyond you lot have any peculiar powers as well.

You head to the nearest town, with only a light scuffle with a zombie barn owl along the way (You even beat your launch record!). You talk to a nearby troll who introduces himself as Eijora Endrau and calls you "Glafli Innarl, the Revered Cyclone of Targets". Uh, wow. You have a title now. You never thought you would have a title. That's pretty cool.

You ask people around for someone well-traveled and are lead to a Dersite named Esxac. You tell him of your powers and ask if there's anybody else he's seen that has similar powers. He says no, but he has a hunch as to what powers you're talking about. He's read about them, see. On engravings and artifacts made by masters of old. Lots of stuff like that. Hell, right over there, see that? Muse of Heart engraved on the wall. He figures it's something like that, especially since rage and life are definitely depicted in art.

Never thought they were real, though, he says. In fact, he's doubting you. You tell him oh yeah? He says yeah, I'm doubting you. You say you're on. He agrees that if he experiences an emotion he usually never does--fright--he will believe you. You make him feel it.

He starts flailing wildly. Holy crap, you say. You tone down the fright. He believes you now. Harlin appears a bit worried at first, then quickly elated.

DIALOGLOG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

HARLIN: Glafli... that was intense.
GLAFLI: I know, I'm sorry, I didn't know it would be so powerful, I hope this doesn't mean...
HARLIN: Glafli, that was amazing. Imagine the possibilities there. You could frighten our enemies and put them off guard! You could give an army a morale boost!
GLAFLI: I'm not entirely sure if I'm capable of that. I know the limits here are high, but I'm not sure how much I can spread it around.
HARLIN: We'll have to test that. I'll be your guinea pig. Make me feel something harmless and see how far you can push it. I'll wait.

Over 20 minutes pass.

GLAFLI: You waited for a long time, heh.
HARLIN: Anything wrong with that?
GLAFLI: Nope, I just gave you the biggest dose of patience I could muster.
HARLIN: Huh. Turns out, it's quite a lot, but I don't think it'd be enough to completely override a person's ideals or personality or anything like that. Plus, they may be able to resist. I was a perfectly willing target.
GLAFLI: Hmm. Next time we fight something that can feel emotions, I'll see what I can do to it.
HERIDO: Could you make someone feel rage?
GLAFLI: Good question. Harlin, you willing?
HARLIN: Yeah, try it.

You try and fail.

GLAFLI: That's... really odd. Apparently rage is something only Herido can do. Let me see if there are any workarounds.

Wrath, Vengefulness, every single synonym you try fails. Anything resembling rage is outside your jurisdiction.

GLAFLI: Yeah, I can't do anything with rage or anything like it. I think I could try a bunch of different emotions and see if there are any possible areas we don't know about.

Hope is out.

GLAFLI: Hope?

Hope, you say, says Esxac. Yeah, that's one of them. Look at the walls, there's twelve of 'em. Huh, you say.

DIALOGLOG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

GLAFLI: Huh.
HARLIN: Life, Rage. I guess those are mine and Herido's. Your could either be Heart or Mind. Since you can't detect mental abilities but you can emotion, I'd say you're Heart.
GLAFLI: So why us?
HARLIN: That is a very good question. What is in common between us? We're all excitement-seeking lowbloods from a village up north. It could be biology.
GLAFLI: Esxac just said that the legends don't say so, that it's something involving great heroes.
HARLIN: Sounds like destiny. Horrible. Well, it's not a bad destiny, I guess. Great heroes, huh? Well, I'd better get more mobile before I do that. Actually, wait just a second.

Harlin heals herself.

HARLIN: There we go. Turns out I can get it back.
GLAFLI: How often do you think you could do that?
HARLIN: Probably only once every 4 hours or so, if even that. It could be that I just have a "store" that is just barely insufficient for two and that the four hours would be far longer next time.
GLAFLI: Anyway, great heroes. That's us, huh? Is that what this sword is about?
HARLIN: You don't know where the sword came from?
GLAFLI: Yeah, it just appeared one day. I took it and started training with it.
HARLIN: That seems obviously contrived.
GLAFLI: Yes, it does. Who could have sent or dropped that?
HARLIN: We probably won't figure that out for a while. Until then, let's take a good look at these engravings and see what this is all about.

The engravings depict a whole bunch of heroes in different symbols and clothing designs. You see a lot of different designs for Heart. Harlin points out that some designs are shared between symbols, which suggests another system that categorizes people further into groups. You wonder which one you are.

You also wonder about that Unbreakable Katana of yours. You're not overtly skilled; you weren't skilled at all before you started training with it, and even now you're still only somewhat proficient at using it. You are freakishly fast and way stronger than the average troll, of course, but neither of those things are altogether too uncommon; there are usually two or three of such freakishly fast/strong trolls per town. The only thing that seems to be special about you is your heart powers.

Maybe that's all they needed, or even all that is needed.

You now know that you are what is quite possibly a legendary hero. Esxac didn't want to join you, but that was because he didn't feel powerful enough to join you, not because your band is too large.

What do you do?

(Author's note: I am so glad that I just happened to grab someone as smart as Harlin at first; I do try to limit the characters by their actual mental attributes and such, and Harlin is easily one of the smartest people on the planet in-universe, as it turns out, so I get to have her do some crazy deductions. Also, there are actual engravings in-game of god-tier sburb classes; that wasn't contrived, I modded those in years ago)

[cyberTripping]

(Spades-style "he says/you say" chain. I love you right now that was amazing.)

> Esxac is too weak to join you... So maybe you should find someone nearby who is strong enough. The "near" death experiences you've had might mean you need the extra firepower.

[Graknorke]

So we're running around with a band of freakishly strong super-geniuses? I can't really disapprove of that.

>Go to the nearest tavern/temple/busyplace and talk to people, get a feel for the local problems, if there's any travelling soldiers to recruit, things like that.

[Putnam]

So we're running around with a band of freakishly strong super-geniuses? I can't really disapprove of that.

No, no, only Harlin's a supergenius. Herido is actually quite below-average and Glafli is only slightly above. Glafli is freakishly agile and as strong as Harlin is smart, but Harlin and Herido are about average in strength and ridiculously un-agile.

The others' attributes I hope to show more through story, heh.

Also, important: note that Harlin, despite having an incredible memory and superlative analytical ability can still be wrong if her data isn't good enough/her assumptions are wrong. Harlin only has average intuition; she needs to think to figure things out, and even then she might not be figuring things out the right way. I've tried to make sure that she notes that sometimes her data isn't good enough to make a strong conclusion, which is pretty much all the time now, since the characters have just recently learned of their powers. She doesn't give exposition, she gives speculation, especially this early. Any exposition would have to come from someone in the know, and even their ideas may be suspect.

Having a supergenius in the party basically forced me into attempting rational fic, heh.

[Sergarr]

You are a worshipper of Hestur, the god of war.

INVENTORY:
Eternal Shame

Pray to Hestur by saying his (her?) name thrice, then equip Eternal Shame.